THR's Paul Bond reports that billionaire Eli Broad, who is known for buoying Los Angeles cultural institutions, has joined up with Austin Beutner, a financier and former deputy mayor, to bid for the Times and possibly other Tribune Company newspapers—or all of them. Broad and Beutner, unlike the Koch brothers and Murdoch, are noted Democratic donors. Both Broad and Koch share the trait of having counterintuitively pronounced names. (Broad rhymes with "code." Koch is "coke.")

Of course, if the Koch brothers and Murdoch are already jostling for the paper, Broad may not get the chance to control this aspect of the city. The fight for Tribune papers, however, should be exciting.

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